Media Research Exec Says Music Industry Is On Its Last Legs

Ponca City, We Love You writes "For years, the major record labels have fought a pitched battle against the MP3 format. Although major labels like EMI and the Universal Music Group have embraced MP3s in recent months, a story from the Mercury News says early returns from those moves indicate they've had little impact on the industry's fortunes — for better or for worse. 'These are ailing businesses on their last legs,' said Eric Garland, chief executive of BigChampagne, a market research company focused on digital media. The question of copy protection on song downloads 'matters a whole lot less to them than it once did.' The industry has a bigger problem. Consumers used to buy CDs for $10 or $15 a pop. Increasingly, they're buying songs at about $1 apiece instead. So, even if transactions continue to increase, the industry is seeing far less money each time consumers buy and it's having a difficult time making up the difference."

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Re:Recruit Better Talent

[rudeboy1]

True. I have yet to understand why ClearChannel can get away with almost a complete monopoly of the radio business. I bet you if you looked up every major radio station in your area, (assuming you live in the US) you will find that the vast majority of them are run by this one company. They have openly admitted they play a very strictly regulated playlist on their stations, driven by sales, not by listener demand, or the search for new music. They are generally limited to a very small list of songs as well, both as a means of "playing it safe", playing only songs they think everyone wants to listen to (thereby not taking risks on new music) and as a means of keeping their royalty fees down. It's a sad state of affairs, but unless you have satellite radio, you're stuck with pretty bland choices.